Thelma Mae "jeff" Berg (jefferson) Obituary

Thelma Mae "jeff" Berg (jefferson) attended Monrovia High School in Monrovia, CA. View the obituary, post a memory, or share a photo about Thelma Mae "jeff" Berg (jefferson).

Graduation Year	Class of 1950
Date of Passing	Jun 16, 2015
About	After long struggle with Alzheimer's Disease, Jeff Berg, devoted wife and mother, age 83 of Apple Valley, CA went to be with the Lord on June 16, 2015, with her husband and five children by her side. She is survived by her husband of 65 years, Bruce E. Berg; her children Rikk, Kelly, Scott, Christy and Tami. Jeff was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and as a young girl moved to Monrovia, CA where she graduated in 1950 and was married in July 1950 to Bruce. For many years while Bruce worked for the Los Angeles Times, Jeff was always by his side. The many trips they took with the Times over the years were always fun and she made life long friends. Jeff loved God, her family, and her horses---Hammerin Hank was her favorite horse. She was the secretary of the High Desert Appaloosa Horse Club--for which she also wrote the newsletter.She was also secretary for The Spotted Valley Appaloosa Horse Club. Jeff attended The Church For Whosoever in Apple Valley, CA. Anyone fortunate enough to have known her will remember her as caring and compassionate. Her heart was kind, and her soul cared deeply for those around her, even when they were strangers. She made people feel as if they could tell her anything. If she thought someone was hurting she felt compelled to make them feel better. Even as they traveled the country showing their horses, people would come from all over to talk to her. Jeff's children, grandchildren and husband meant the world to her. She always made holidays so special. All these thing, of course are things that can be seen, observed, witnessed. But there were parts of her that also went unseen by most--things she may not have spoken about, but which were nonetheless important to her. She love to write. She was constantly writing little things down--poems, thoughts, fragments. Poems would come to her all of a sudden, as if out of nowhere, and she would write them down, immortalizing her thoughts and feelings. The words that we write become extensions of ourselves. How lucky we are to have these pieces of her--remnants of her fleeting thoughts and desires. And that she wrote--albeit privately, sporadically, and often on scraps of paper--tells us that she wanted to be remembered always. She wanted to remember and be remembered. Some say that grief is really just desire and longing in their purest form. Perhaps it is in grieving that we come to understand, just how deep is our love for someone. And perhaps no one knew the meaning of love bette than Jeff. She and Bruce demonstrated a love that was eternal and inspiring. It was infectious from beginning to end. As the story goes, Jeff was workingat a malt shop in Monrovia with Bruce's sister, Darya who once showed her a photo of Bruce in the Army. Jeff looked at the photo and said to herself, "I'm going to marry him one day." It was the stuff of which dreams and movies are made. Jeff was a song leader, and so Bruce went to games and saw her there. One day he grew tired of watching and went in to that malt shop, sat down, ordered a cherry coke, and asked Jeff when they would go out and get married. She laughed her beautiful laugh. And finally he asked her out and she said yes. Not long after, she told Bruce she had a date with someone else and he said, "No, you don't." And she never went out with anyone else again. Their love was written in stone. A novelist once said, "Everything that has been made from love is alive," and seeing Jeff and Bruce together was an indelible reminder of this. They are alive and they loved deeply. They danced--they loved to dance. Jeff was a wonderful dancer, and the sounds of Glen Miller were especially inspiring to her. She was beautiful--her face and hair alway impeccably done. She love music, especially Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash; she and Bruce saw them both live on many occasions. For Bruce, the beauty of their love materialized most profoundly in the simple things. For him, just being with her--that's the memory that makes him happiest. They went everywhere together. Love is found in the simple things. They were a team, a partnership. They were inseparable. They were in love. That love doesn't disappear with the passing of Jeff. It doesn't evaporate or grow cold. Bruce spent hours a day with Jeff near the end. He never left her side, often bringing her strawberry banana smoothies. She always like the sweet things that life had to offer. But more importantly, she was a woman worth loving with all of your heart and soul--the kind of woman that inspires one to love deeply. Hers was a romantic impulse, returned in kind by the love and commitment of her husband Bruce. The poet Yehuda Amichai famously wrote: "Just as time isn't inside clocks, love isn't inside bodies: bodies only tell the love." The body may be gone, but the love remains. Grief is heavy as it bakes inside of the ones who remain while one has gone, but it is grief that helps us to remember the beauty, the simplicity, and the love that so characterized Jeff's time with us. She was a gift and we give back to her by giving her a home in our memories. Jeff always loved that she had gone to Monrovia High School and said many times how lucky they were to have had a school like that and the wonderful people that attended there. Monrovia Days was always so special to her. Funeral services will be Friday, June 26, 2015 at The Church For Whosoever, 18628 Seneca Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307. Viewing at 11:00 a.m. Service to begin at 1:00 p.m. Sunset Hills Memorial Park of Apple Valley presides over funeral arrangements.